Holmes and Watson End Peace: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes

by David Ruffle

  “It’s simple, Holmes. I found your life to be a far more interesting one than my own. The readers wanted to know about you, not me.”

  “Perhaps they may have been eager for tales of your experience of women, which extended over many nations and three separate continents, unless your prowess in those matters was somewhat overstated.”

  “My natural discretion would naturally not allow me to compile such an account.”

  “Good old Watson!”

  “As you were so fond of saying, the fair sex was my department.”

  “Your natural charm carried all before you; I was constantly bewildered by the ease with which you relaxed in women’s company. I do not mean that unkindly, you had a great gift, a gift I could not share, but one I appreciated from afar. I am sure that at times it would have got you into trouble with your heart leading you into places you maybe did not want to go.”

  “There is some truth in what you say. The mention of Ballarat brought an incident back to me that has haunted me all my life.”

  “Involving a woman no doubt?”

  “I was very young then and you might say, hot-headed.”

  “A man of action even then? I was always well aware of your instinct to be doing something energetic, but even so, I have grave difficulty in seeing you as hot-headed.”

  “Be assured I was. As you will recall, I was living with my cousin in Ballarat and kicking my heels before deciding whether to head home and take up the medical career I had equipped myself for or to stay put for a while and maybe strike out for one of the cities, possibly Melbourne, as it was the closest. My cousin lived with his adoptive folks in Mount Pleasant, a lively, thriving area at the height of the gold rush, but already in decline by the time of my arrival in the autumn of 1873. The house was basically a shack, but homely enough for a young man of twenty-one with the light of adventure in his eyes. The excitement of being in this strange place far out-weighed the lack of home comforts. In the neighbouring shack lived a family who kept themselves to themselves, although with persistence and patience I was able to strike up a friendship with the daughter of the house.”

  “Persistence, patience and charm, I dare say, Watson?”

  “A little maybe. Her name was Adaline and she was as sweet a girl as you could imagine with a face a man could die for. She wore her blonde hair long and loose and when the breeze caught it, it was such a sight to behold. It may be well over fifty years ago, but I would wager not a day has passed in all that time that I have not thought of her. I was not the only one to dance attention upon her; there were other suitors for the lack of another word. However, I was the one she favoured, the one she walked out with. So entranced was I that I was quite prepared to abandon my fledgling medical career and my studies to remain in Ballarat to be close to her.”

  “What happened to change all that, Watson?”

  “It all happened so quickly. We had made an arrangement to meet one evening for a walk. She was usually so prompt that I began to worry when the minutes ticked by and still she had not arrived. It was to be another thirty minutes before she came into view and when she appeared she was obviously in great distress, she was crying, her dress was torn and she looked abject.”

  “She had perhaps been a victim of the attentions of one of these other suitors?”

  “Yes, a brutish young man by the name of John Rock. He had tried to force himself on her, unsuccessfully I might add. The ferocity with which she fought back had seen him off. My blood boiled as she recounted all this to me. I comforted her as best I could and once she had composed herself she returned home with a story of stumbling on the ground to cover the damage to her dress.”

  “And you, presumably, went in search of this John Rock?”

  “Yes, Holmes. I had no thoughts of violence towards the fellow, I am not at all sure what I was thinking; he was a good three inches taller and wider than I and any form of fisticuffs would surely see me come off second best. However, I could not let it go.”

  “Were there no officers of the law available to take the matter in hand?”

  “It would have shamed Adaline for the assault to become public and in my innocence, I agreed with her. I found John Rock by the nearest deserted pit, drinking heavily from a half-empty bottle of whisky. He knew why I was there and his immediate response was to charge at me, head down like a bull. I side-stepped him and picked up a sizeable stone. When he charged again I brought it down on his skull with all the force I could muster. I could have stopped him by using less force, after all he was drunk and fairly incapable, but in that moment I wished him dead, it was a deliberate action of mine.”

  “Did you in fact kill him?”

  “Yes, Holmes.”

  “Oh, my dear fellow, what a situation to find yourself in.”

  “Do you judge me for my actions?”

  “No I do not, Watson.”

  “I became judge, jury and executioner in that moment of madness. I could not think straight, but when my red mist cleared, I realised what a quandary I was in and had to act quickly. I disposed of Rock’s body down one of the disused shafts and removed all traces of our presence. The following day was the last day of the cricket match between Ballarat and WG Grace’s XI and I took Dr Grace into my confidence and would have respected his advice whatever it would turn out to be. The upshot was that I travelled with Grace’s team until we reached the coast and then I worked my passage home.”

  “What of Adaline?”

  “I got word to her of what had happened and why I had to leave. I knew my secret was safe in her hands. I believe the general consensus of opinion was that Rock had decided to leave town. There was no way that I could stay and remain with Adaline after my actions; however I saw those actions and indeed however she viewed them, I was a killer and my life was forever to be blighted by my actions of that night.”

  “My dear fellow, I had no idea.”

  “You are the first person I have told since that time. My cousin never got to know of my actions, he probably assumed I was homesick and took advantage of the presence of the touring team to move on. Much later on, when I felt able, I wrote an anonymous letter to the remaining members of the Rock family detailing where they could find their kinsman. It is not an episode I am proud of, Holmes.”

  “Was doctoring some kind of penance then?”

  “Not exactly, I was already geared up to the life of a medico, but maybe it made my resolve to succeed all the stronger or perhaps my whole life has been a penance. In time I pushed the whole affair into the furthest recesses of my mind, not wholly successfully I might add. Those times when you acted as judge, jury and executioner always brought it sharply back into focus. Although of course you were not an executioner in the literal sense as I had been.”

  “You think not, Watson?”

  “I know so. I have tortured myself over the years with what I could have done or should have done that night. Futile, pathetic thoughts for I could never undo what I actually had done. I deprived a family of their son... for what?... a drunken misguided assault, half-baked, half-hearted and ill-conceived which would never have succeeded. Adaline deserved better from me. And what did she get? A violent thuggish reaction which ruined all we had been dreaming of.”

  “But John Rock did that for you both, by attacking Adaline and setting the whole chain of events into being.”

  “He may have started it, but I finished it with the most abject, cowardly action thinkable.”

  “You were young and hot-headed, but cowardly? I do not think so.”

  “There is no other word for it, Holmes. None at all. I do not believe that I have to account for my actions to a higher authority, a celestial court, but I do owe it to you, my friend, to set matters right.”

  “I take it your anonymous letter was couched in such terms as to render the chances of anyone t
racking you down negligible?”

  “Yes, a ‘friend of a friend’ heard this or told me that. Ever the coward you see.”

  “Was John Rock’s body recovered do you know?”

  “I heard in a roundabout way that it had.”

  “And Adaline?”

  “The last I heard was that she married a local man of German descent and they made their home in Perth, but that was to be my last knowledge of her. I suspect you now see me in a different light, Holmes.”

  “No, not at all, Watson. My view of you is based on the time we have spent in each other’s company and our friendship. You are solid, trustworthy and a courageous man. I could never have wished for a more able assistant or trusted friend.”

  “Thank you, Holmes. I am not sure how deserving of those epithets I am, but thank you.”

  “You are entirely deserving, your actions of fifty-five years ago have no bearing on it.”

  “I feel so weary.”

  “Then sleep, my dear fellow.”

  “I will. Holmes, if I should not...”

  “You will, Watson, you will.”

  Interlude

  “Some tea for you, Nurse Pollett and I have saved you a biscuit before Polly ate them all.”

  “Thank you, Matron.”

  “I know I was hard on you earlier about sitting in the chair, but I would rather you did that than sitting on the bed.”

  “There is something odd about that chair; fair gives me the shivers it does. It’s like it doesn’t want me sitting there.”

  “Stuff and nonsense, child.”

  “Try it then!”

  “How odd. A most peculiar feeling, perhaps there is a draught coming from somewhere?”

  “No, no draught. I checked all over.”

  “Oh well, sure it must be something simple to account for it. How is the doctor?”

  “Growing weaker, but still talking in his sleep although he has gone quiet now. He says ‘Holmes’ every so often like he’s talking to him. Do you think he knows? I know you thought it best to keep the news from him.”

  “On some level he may do.”

  “Thanks for the tea, Matron. I suppose I should get on now, still got some jobs to do before end of shift.”

  “What have you got left to do?”

  “Nothing too much, a few instruments to sterilise, the linen cupboard to tidy.”

  “If you want to stay here with Dr Watson, I will see if Nurse Harrison has the time to attend to your duties for you... if not I will do it myself.”

  “Gosh, are you sure? Not joking are you, Matron?”

  “I am not in the habit of making jokes, young lady! Now, call me if you need me.”

  “Will do and thank you.”

  “You are going to be a wonderful nurse, Lucy. Call me when... well, you know.”

  “Yes, Matron.”

  Chapter 10

  “Is it morning yet, Holmes?”

  “The dawn is not far off.”

  “Odd isn’t it how time goes so slowly when young, but speeds up measurably when older. Of course I am well aware that it is not actually so.”

  “The years of my youth seemed interminable before I could leave the family house and make my way in the world; so in that sense yes it did go slowly for me. Now all of a sudden we are rushing towards the mid 20th century with all the changes that will bring. Just think of all the inventions that we have seen in our time, Watson.”

  “It was an ever-changing world. Houses lit by electricity, motor cars, telephones, aeroplanes. Will there ever be an era like it?”

  “The answer to that is yes There will be myriad improvements to the inventions you mention; motor cars will become faster and faster, telephones will become available for all and that favourite mode of communication of ours, the telegram, will disappear altogether. Aeroplanes will carry hundreds of people across the seven seas quicker than we could ever imagine. At the same time, man will no doubt develop weapons which are fearsomely destructive. Mankind’s thoughts turn to war more readily than anything else.”

  “Will life be better?”

  “Life will be essentially what individuals choose to make it. I, for one would have to find an alternative profession.”

  “So you intimated earlier, but detectives will always be needed whatever technological advances come along.”

  “Not my form of detecting, Watson. In the future, so much information will be available at a push of a button, such are the advancements being made in communications.”

  “Then you would have to become a different kind of detective, but still one equally successful surely?”

  “I am happy to have lived when I did and it is somewhat futile and meaningless to speculate on what I or indeed you may have been in another time. I think we belong to hansom cabs, London ‘particulars’ and a gas-lit world. Personally, I would not have it any other way.”

  “Nor would I.”

  “If we could fly out of this window, Watson, hand in hand, to the future, I suspect we would not be enthralled by what we would see. Brave new world? I think not.”

  “Perhaps others before us had much the same views regarding the 19th century. Each age, each epoch has to stand on its own merits. It’s only hindsight that tells us differently. Those living in the time of the Tudors no doubt thought themselves to be living in an enlightened age. When we look back we would deny them that; we would look at the poor sanitation, the gross religious intolerance, the poverty, the divisions between church and state, shake our heads wistfully and point to our own age as being truly enlightened even though we have experience of many of the same ills. Hindsight and foresight differ so very little. I prefer to think of the future as an empty canvas which mankind can fill with a new and better landscape. Each era must surely learn lessons. The factions that foisted the Great War on us will have seen what a terrible scourge they let loose upon the earth and lessons would have certainly been learnt there.”

  “And yet, what have we seen since the cessation of those particular hostilities; the Soviet revolution, Greece and Turkey at war, Poland at war with the Soviets. Already there are storm clouds gathering over Europe and if I don’t miss my mark, then all too soon another great war will engulf us.”

  “That would be madness, Holmes.”

  “That is precisely what it will be.”

  “I cannot even begin to imagine the horrors such a war would bring. The broken bodies I observed in the field hospitals of the Great War were almost too much for me to stomach; the whole flower of a generation wiped out in such an abomination. I would hope that future conflicts would be settled through diplomatic circles, by discourse and reasoning instead of bullets.”

  “I doubt such a time will ever come. Avaricious nations will always seek to control lesser ones and man’s propensity for violence will always bring such disputes to a state of war. And if politics and greed do not divide then religion surely will.”

  “Will not greater and more efficient communication and travel between nations have the effect of bringing those nations closer?”

  “I believe it more likely to polarise rather than bring together; the differences amongst the nations of the world, be they political, cultural or religious, can only be heightened by greater intimacy with each other.”

  “So the more we rise, the more we are liable to fall. The greater our discernment, the less we have to show for it by the way of peace and greater understanding. Man is a strange and ill-fated animal, Holmes.”

  “And master of his own fate, for better or for worse.”

  “As you said once, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent and will continue to be so. But, perhaps we are guilty of painting too black a picture for the future. I prefer to stay optimistic on behalf of future genera
tions, life may turn out to be better than we can imagine.”

  “Perhaps so. Good old Watson, the one fixed point in this changing age. You are a beacon of hope in this dull world.”

  “And a coward, a killer.”

  “Watson, Watson. What’s done is done and cannot be undone. I do not seek to judge you nor do I have any right to judge you.”

  “But in a sense you have spent a part of your life in the company of one you thought you knew well, but didn’t know at all.”

  “I knew of your friendship, your loyalty and your courage; had I known of this sad episode in your life it would not have made any difference whatsoever to our comradeship.”

  “Thank you, Holmes.”

  “Besides, my friend, we are not so very different you know.”

  “No? I was always aware of a gulf between us although maybe the word, ‘chasm’, expresses it better.”

  “That was not quite my meaning.”

  “You are surely not going to tell me that you also killed in your younger days? That would be something I would never believe of you.”

  “Nevertheless. It is true.”

  “I... I... but... who... why? I... I ...”

  “Would you like to rest for a moment before I continue?”

  “My mind says no, but my body says yes.”

  Interlude

  “How is he doing, Lucy?”

  “Oh, hello Polly. He seems very calm. Still chatting away, but his eyes are becoming dimmer.”

  “Ah, the sweet man.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you ready then, Lucy?”

  “Ready?”

  “Where is your head, gal? It’s knocking-off time. Well, near as dammit anyway.”

  “You get off if you want, Polly. I’ll sit here a while, you know, keep him company.”

  “Oh, okay. How long are you planning to stay for?”